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Mr. p. b. porters speech 



n 

ON 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



1)elive::ied 



In the house of REPRESENrATIVES, 



ON 



THE EIGHTH FEBRUARY, l§l«t / 




I HAVE risen, sir, for the purpose of asking tHe atten- 
tion of the House to a subject, than which, I may confidently say, 
there is no one that regards our domestic policy, more impor- 
tant ; or which more loudly calls for the interposition t)f the na- 
tional legislature. 

The subject to which I allude, is the Internal improvement of 
the United States, by roads. and canals: And I intend, before I 
sit down, to offer a resolution, the object of which will be to as- 
certain the sense of the House in relation to the expediency of 
appropriating a part of the public lands to such improvements. 

1 am not in the habit of trespassing upon the patience of thie 
House, and I am sure no apology will be required for the time I 
may occupy in presenting such general views of this subject, 
as the importance of it seems, in my opinion, to demand; i 
know that the time of the House is precious. I am av/are that 
there are many matters connected with our foreign relations, 
that have stroKg claims to its attention ; but they surely ought 
not to exclude every other subject of legislation. I have the 
honor to represent a portion of the country which is perhaps as 
little affected by our exterior commercial relations as any part of 
the United States ; and yet I listen, with great attention and in- 
terest, to the various plans and propositions which are daily sub- 
mitted and discusJ^ecl in this House, and with which indeed its 
time is almost exclusively occupied, for the protection and se- 
curity of commerce ; and 1 trust that I shall shew by my vote>^, 
on every proper occasion, that I consider my constituents as 
bound to support with their persons and their property, and to 
the last extremity, the just rights of the merchants of this coun- 
try. On the other hand, I have aright to expect that the gentle- 
men who represent the mercantile interest will not onl^' hear 



% 



\ 



with patience the proposition I am about to submit, but that they 
will thank me for the fair opportunity I intend to aiFord them,^ 
of proving the sincerity of those professions which we hear so 
often and so loudly made on this floor, in favor of the agricultu- 
ral interest. The gentlemen tell us that commerce is only the 
hand maid of agriculture j and that their zeal to protect com- 
merce arises merely from a desire to promote, through its in- 
strumentality, the great interests of agriculture. I shall not 
question the sincerity of these declarations, nor the correctness 
6f the principle they assert ; but it is to be presumed that the 
gentlemen will be as willing to give a direct encouragement to 
agriculture, as to do it indirectly through the medium of 
Commerce. 

It will be recollected that a bill was some days ago laid on 
your table, irom the Senate, embracing the subject of roads and 
canals. What course this bill has already taken, or what may 
be its ultimate fate in that House, were it possible for me to 
conjecture, it would be improper for me to state in this place ; 
especially in the present state of my feelings on that subject, 
I mention this bill only because I had some little share in pro- 
ducing it in the form in which it appears on your tables, and in 
which it originally appeared in the Senate ; and because it there- 
fore shews my ideas of a practical mode of carrying the objects 
of the resolution into effect. And I must beg the House to 
bear in mind the provisions of that bill, in weighing the observa- 
tions which I am about to offer ; should these observations be so 
fortunate as to gain the ear of the House. 

It is possible that some of the views which I am about to take 
of this subject, may be considered as too extravagant and re- 
mote ; and that they may at first even wear the appearance of 
affectation^ I hope however, it will be recollected that the sub- 
ject is in itself of vast magnitude and extent ; and that in order 
to speak of it with any degree of justice, it will be necessary to 
consider it in reference to the great and correspondent effects 
which it is calculated to produce. And permit me, in the first 
place, to say, sir, that some great system of internal navigation, 
such as is contemplated in the bill introduced into the Senate, 
is not only an object of the first consequence to the future pros- 
perity of this country, considered as a measure of political econo- 
my ; but as a measure of state policy, it is indispensable to the 
preservation of the integrit;, of this government. 

The United States have for twenty years past been favored in 
their external commerce, in a manner unequalled perhaps in the 
history of the world. Our citizens have not only grown rich^ 
but they have gone almost mad in pursuit of this commerce. 
Such have been its temptations^ as to engage in it almost the 
whole of the floating capital of the country, and a great part of 



ri 



"3 

lis enterprize ; and every other occupation has been considered 
as secondary and subordinate. This extraordinary success of 
commerce has been owing partly to our local situation, partly to 
the native enterprise of our citizens, but primarily to the unpar- 
alleled succession of events in Europe. The course of these 
events, before so propitious to our interests, has of late, very 
materially changed, and with it has changed the tide of our com- 
mercial prosperity. I am far, howev^, from believing that this 
sudden reverse may not eventually prove fortunate for the true 
interests of the United States. The embarrassments which the 
belligerents have thrown in the way of our external commerce, 
have turned the attention of the people of this country to their 
own internal resources. And in viewing these resources, we 
perceive with pride, that there is no country on earth, which in 
the fertility of its soil, the extent and variety of its climate and 
productions, affords the means of national wealth and greatness 
in the measure they are enjoyed by the people of the United 
States. If these means are properly fostered and encouraged 
by a liberal and enlightened policy, we shall soon be able not 
only to defend our independence at home, (which however, I 
confidently trust, we have now both the ability and the disposi- 
tion to do, notwithstanding the fears that are attempted to be ex- 
cited on this subject,) but we shall be able to protect our foreign 
commerce against the united power of the world. One great 
object of the system I am about to propose, is to unlock these 
internal resources — to enable the citizen of one part of the U- 
nited States, to exchange his products for those of another, and 
to open a great internal commerce, which is acknowledged 
by all who profess any skill in the science of political economy to 
be much more profitable and advantageous than the most favored 
external commerce which we could enjoy. The system, how- 
ever, has another object in view not less important. 

The people of the United States are divided by a geographi- 
cal line into two great and distinct sections — 1 he people who 
live along the Atlantic on the east side of the Allegany moun- 
tains, and who compose the three great classes, of merchants^ 
manufacturers and agriculturalists ; and those who occupy the 
west side of those mountains, who are exclusively agricultu- 
ralists. This diversity and supposed contrariety of interest 
and pursuit between the people of these two great divisions of 
country, and the difference of character to which these occu- 
pations give rise, it has been confidently asserted, and is still 
believed by many, will lead to a separation of the United 
States at no very distant day. In my humble opinion, sir, 
this very diversity of interest will, if skilfully managed, be 
the means of producing a closer and more intimate union of 
the states. It will be obviouslv for the interests of the inte^ 



4 

rior states to exchange the great surplus products of their 
lands, and the raw materials of manufactures for the merchan- 
dise and manufactured articles of the eastern states ; and on 
the other hand the interests of the merchants and manufactu- 
rers of the Atlantic will be equally promoted by this internal 
commerce and it is by promoting this commerce, by encou- 
raging and facilitating this intercourse — it is by producing a 
TOiutual dependence of interests between these two great sec- 
tions, and by these m«!?rtfs only, that the United States can 
ever be kept together. 

The great evil, and it is a serious one indeed, sir, under 
■which the inhauitants of the western country labor, arises 
from the want of a market. There is no place where the great 
staple articles for the use of civilised life can be produced in 
greater abundance or with greater ease. And yet as respects 
most of the luxuries and many of the convenienjC£s_ of lifcj 
the people are poor. They have no vent for their produce at 
liome ; because, being all agriculturalists, they produce alike 
the same articles with the same facility ; and such is the pre- 
sent difficulty and expense of transporting their produce to an 
Atlantic port, that little benefits are realised from that quarter. 
The single circumstance, of the want of a market, is already 
beginning to produce the most disastrous effects, not only on 
the industry but upon the morals of the inhabitants. Such is 
the fertility of their lands, that one half of their time spent in 
labor is sufficient to produce every article, which their farms 
are capable of yielding, in sufficient quantities for their own 
consumption, and there is nothing to incite them to produce 
more. They are therefore, naturally led to spend the other 
part of their time in idleness and dissipation. Their increase 
in numbers, and the ease with which children are brought up 
and fed, far from encouraging them to become manufacturers 
for themselves, puts at a great distance the time, when, quit- 
ting the freedom and independence of masters of the soil, 
they will submit to the labor and confinement of manufactu- 
rers. This, sir, is the true situation of the western agricultu- 
ralist. It becomes then an object of national importance, far 
outvv^eighing almost every other that can occupy the attention 
of this House, to inquire v/hether the evils incident to this 
state of things, may not be removed, by opening a great navi- 
gable canal from the Atlantic to the western states^ ; and thus 
promoting the natural connexion and intercourse between the 
farmer and the merchant, so highly conducive to the interests of 
both. This brings me more immediately to the object of the 
resolution which I shall have the honor to submit. And I 
must beg the indulgence of the House while I attempt to 
shew, by a geographical detail, not only the importance bii^ 
tlie practicability of such a navigation. 



5 

The great ranges of mountain continued from the circular 
mountain in Georgia on the south, to the Mohawk river in 
the state of New- York, on the north, intercept and destroy 
the navigation of all ihe rivers which discharge into the Atlan- 
tic and approach the western country. But when you have 
passed these mountains from the Atlantic, that country opens 
a scene of natural internal navigation unequalled in the world. 
The face of the country is so uniformly level as to make al- 
most every small stream, by which it is intersected, naviga- 
ble for boats of consid«:^rable size. The chain of western 
lakes, extending from the north eastern extremity of lake 
Ontario to the south western termination of lake Michigan, 
fiffords now an excellent navigation, for vessels drawing ten 
feet of water, of fourteen hundred miles in extent — uninterrupt- 
ed, except by the falls and rapids of Niagara, a distance of 
only eight miles. To the souih and west of these lakes the 
waters of the Ohio and Mississippi approach within short dis- 
tances of, and are interlocked bj the waters of the lakes* 
The lands along these dividing waters are generally level; 
and the rivers are navigable and might be connected by short 
canals at little expense. I will mention some of the principal 
points at which these connexions might be formed. 

On the south western part of lake Erie, in the state of 
New York, there is a portage of eight miles from that lake tp 
a small lake, called the Chatauqua. The Chatauqua is the 
reservoir or source of one of the branches of the Allegany ri-i 
ver, and this stream is navigable from the lake to Pittsburg, 
on the Ohio, for boats of'thirty tons burthen. The waters 
of the Chatauqua are higher than those of lake Erie, to which 
there is a gradual and regular descent of land ; and a canal 
might be opened between them at a very moderate expense. 

On the south side of lake Erie, in the state of Pennsylva* 
nla, there is another portage of 15 miles over an artificial road, 
from Presque Isle to French creek, another branch of the 
Allegany, and which is also navigable for boats carrying 200 
barrels. Over these two portages was sent, during the lastj 
summer, more than 100,000 bushels of salt, manufactured in, 
the interior of the state of New-York, and transported through 
lakes Ontario and Erie, across these portages and down tQ 
Pittsburg, for the use of the inhabitants of the Ohio and its 
tributary streams. This salt trade was commenced about seven 
years ago, and has been increasing ever since at the rate of 
twenty five per cent, a year : And if the great line of naviga- 
tion, to which I shall presently call the attention of the House, 
were opened, the people of the Ohio, and its various waters, 
would be supplied with that great and necessary article of life, 
fifty per cent, cheaper than it now costs them. 





About 100 miles to the west of Presque Isle, in the state of 
Ohio, the river Cayohaga opens a good boat navigation from 
lake Erie to within six or eight miles of the navigable waters 
of the Muskingum; and I understand that a communication is 
about to be opened between them, either by means of a canal, 
or an artificial road, under the patronage of the legislature of 
that state. 

About 150 miles still further to the west, in the territories 
of Michigan and Indiana, other communications may be form- 
ed between the waters of the Miami of lake Erie, and the Wa- 
bash and Miami of the Ohio. 

At the south western extremity of lake Michigan, the most 
-inconsiderable expense would open a canal between the waters of 
that lake and the Illinois river, one of the principal branches of 
the Mississippi. Nature has already made this connexion near- 
ly complete J and it is not uncommon for boats, in the spring of 
the year, to pass from the lake into the Illinois, and from thence 
by the waters of the Illinois and Mississippi to New-Orleans, 
without being taken out of the water. 

Further to the north, a connexion might be formed with near- 
ly the same facility between the waters of the Fox river which 
discharges into Green Bay, and the Ouisconsing, another branch 
of the Mississippi j and the lands adjacent to these rivers are 
said to be uncommonly rich and fertile. 

From this view of the western country and the great extent 
of its natural internal navigation, we perceive the advantages to 
be df rived by opening it to the Atlantic by a great canal ; and 
we discover also, at the same time, that it is not very important 
to the inhabitants, by what line this canal approaches them, as 
their interests would be almost equally promoted by any route 
that might be adopted. I presume, however, there can be no 
doubt on this point. 

The Allegany mountains have a uniform elevation of about 
three thousand feet above the level of the tide. Their bases, 
together with those of their parallel ridges, occupy a distance, 
transversely of about one hundred miles. They present a bar- 
rier to the opening of any continued navigation from the middle 
states to the western country, which, if not beyond the reach of 
art, it is certainly far beyond that of our present national resour- 
ces to surmount. An inspection of the map will at once point 
out this leading fact. To unite the highest navigable waters on 
each side of the mountains, by good roads, is all that can 
for some years, and perhaps for some centuries be attempted j 
and very valuable communications may be opened in this way. 

To the south and west of these mountains, the river Missis- 
^^- ^ippi affords an invaluable descending navigation to the inhabi- 

tants of the vast countries which it traverses : But, such is the^ 



7 

great extent of that river, and the uniform rapidity of its cur- 
rent, that great doubts are entertained whether it can ever be 
made a valuable ascend'pig navigation. It certainly cannot, in 
the present state of the science of navigation, even with the im- 
provements of the steam boat. To the north, still more impor- 
tant difficulties present themselves in the navigation of the St. 
Laurence. One of these is found in the great rapids of that ri- 
ver, and another in the severity of the climate, which is such 
as to shut up the mouth of the river with ice, for six or seven 
months in a year. The only practicable route for an ascending 
navigation to the lakes, is by way of the Hudson and Mohawk, 
in the state of New-York, the Hudson being the only river 
whose tide waters flow above the Blue Ridge, or eastern chain 
of mountains. The Mohawk rises in the level lands of the 
western country, in the vicinity of Lake Ontario, from whence 
it takes an easterly direction for about a hundred and forty miles 
near to Albany, the seat of government of the state of New- 
York, where it passes around the northern extremity of the 
western chain of Allegany mountains, and falls into the Hudson. 
From thence the two rivers united take a southerly course, and 
breaking through the east chain of mountains, commonlj^called 
the Blue Ridge, at West-Point, fall into the Atlantic at New- 
York. The Hudson is navigable from New- York to the mouth 
of the Mohawk, a distance of a hundred and seventy miles, for 
sloops drawing from eight to ten feet of water. The Mohawk 
is a river of respectable size, and for most of its distance deep 
and navigable ; but its navigation is occasionally interrupted by- 
falls. A canal of any extent may be made along the margin of 
this river, and supplied with its waters, as high as Rome, which 
is one hundred and twenty miles from its mouth. From Rome 
a canal of one mile and an half in length, over lands which do 
not rise more than nine feet above the bed of the river, will con- 
nect it with the waters of Lake Ontario, down which the canal 
maybe continued (about sixty miles) to the lake. The highest 
elevation of this canal at Rome, would be less than four hun- 
dred feet above the tide waters of the Hudson, and less than two 
hundred above the surface of Lake Ontario. The whole ex- 
pense of this canal from the Hudson to the lake, is estimated by 
the secretary of the treasury, in his very able report to the Senate 
of April, 1808, on the subject of roads and canals, at 2,200,000 
dollars : and I will take the liberty to recommend to the members 
of this House the perusal of that report, as containing a fund of 
the most useful geographical and other information, which, on 
every subject of political economy, that gentleman is so emi- 
nently qualified to impart. 

From the place where this canal would connect with Lake On- 
tario, there is a ship navigation of two hundred miles to the falls 



of Niagara. A canal with locks sufficiently large for the vessels 
that navigate the lakes, might be opened around these falls, at 
an expense, estimated by the secretary of the treasury at one 
million oi dollars. From the Niagara river there is again a ship 
navigation to every part of lake Erie. It is presumed that a 
canal might be opened from lake Erie to the Ohio, for the sum 
of five hundred thousand dollars, and another canal cut around 
the falls of the Ohio, for the like sum of five hundred thousand 
dollars : And from the falls of the Ohio there is a good naviga- 
tion of near two thousand miles to the gulf of Mexico. And 
thus, sir, for the sum of 4,200,000 dollars, a great circum navi- 
gation might be formed, embracing the principal part of the 
United States and their territories ; and connecting in its course, 
by navigable waters, the whole of the western and Atlantic 
countries. This canal would open to the navigation of the At- 
lantic on the lakes alone, (inclusive of lake Superior, the navi- 
gation to which is now obstructed by a short rapid in the river 
JSt. Marys, which connects it with lake Huron ; but which ob- 
struction might be removed by an expense of thirty or forty 
thousand dollars) : I say, sir, it would open to the navigation 
of thdiAtlantic, on the lakes alone, a coast of between five and 
six thousand miles, of as fine and fertile country as any in the 
world. And it would open on the Mississippi and its various 
waters, a country not less fertile and still more extensive. How 
many hundred millions of dollars such an operation would add 
to the solid wealth of the western country, I will not venture to 
conjecture : But, sir, I may well say, that there is no work in 
the power of man, which would give such life, such vigor, such 
enterprize and such riches to the citizens of that country, as 
the execution of this canal. The inhabitants near the lakes 
would have a direct communication to and from Nev/ York, by 
means of the canal, and the eifect of it would be to double the 
price of their produce, and to add three or four hundred per 
cent, to the value of their lands The people of the Ohio and 
Mississippi would descend with their produce to i^ew Orleans 
and to any port on the Atlantic, from whence they might return 
with the articles received in exchange by way of Hudson and 
the lakes to their own homes. The idea of benefiting the people 
of the Ohio and Mississippi to any great extent by this north- 
ern navigation may perhaps at first appear visionar}'' ; but i can 
state it as a fact, that even at this time, under all the disadvan- 
tages of that route, goods may be transported from the city of 
New-York, by the way of the Hudson and the lakes to any part 
of the Ohio, and to all those parts of the Mississippi above its 
confluence with the Ohio, at as cheap a rate as they can be trans- 
ported from any port on the Atlantic, by any other route. The 
eifect of opening this navigation would then be to reduce the 



price of transportation to those parts of the country at least fifty, 
and probably seventy-five, per cent. Another important advan- 
tage, independent of the general commerce of the lakes, would 
be felt in the reduction of at least fifty per cent, in the price of 
salt. The salt springs in the state of Nuw-York, are within a 
few miles of the proposed line of circumnavigation, and are 
connected with it by a navigable river. This article may be ma- 
nufactured at those springs in sufficient quantities for the whole 
of the population of the United States, and it is now sold there 
for twenty five and thirty cents a bushel: but such is the present 
expense of transportation that it sells in the Pittsburg market for 
two dollars a bushel. If the effect of opening a canal naviga- 
tion were only to reduce the price at Pittsburg to one dollar, it 
w^ould make a saving on the quantity now sent to that market of 
one hundred thousand dollars a year. But, sir, aside from all the 
pecuniary benefits 1 have mentioned, the great political effect of 
this work would be — by opening extensive communications, en- 
couraging intercourse, and promoting connexions between the 
various ports of the Atlantic and Western states, to subdue local 
jealousies, and to bind the union together by the indissoluble 
ties of interest and friendship. 

There may be some, sir, whose fears to do any thing which 
shall diminish the national resources, may incline them to reject 
this system of internal improvement at the first view, on account 
of the magnitude of its expense. Let me ask these gendemen 
to give themselves the trouble to trace the eonsequences of this 
system on the public wealth, and they will soon be satisfied 
that there are no possible means by which the aggregate value of 
the landed property of the United tates could be so certainly 
increased, as by the application of part of these lands t® the pur- 
poses of opening the great inland navigation which I have before 
described. The immediate and necessary effect of which would 
be, to enhance the value of the remaining part to an almost in- 
conceivable extent. 

I have been somewhat conversant with the interests of the 
great private land holders of the western country. They are a 
class of people whose sagacity in discovering and industry in 
pursuing the means of accumulating wealth are not to be ques- 
tioned. When they undertake the sale and settlement of wild 
lands, there is no policy so well understood or so generally adopt- 
ed as that of opening easy and extensive communications, 
through the different parts of their lands, and of facilitating the 
approaches to them, by means of good roads. And for every 
dollar they expend in these roads, or indeed, in almost an)' other 
public improvement, they are sure to be remunerated three or 
lour hundred per cent, in the increased value which is thereby 
given to their lands. 

Q 



10 

The United States are owners of about 250,000,000 acres of 
land in the western country, independent of Louisiana. More 
than 100,000,0^'0 acres lie in the vicinity of the lakes. The 
public lands occupy a coast on the lakes of more than 2600 miles 
in extent, inclusive of the navigable streights by which they are 
connected ; but exclusive of the numerous and extensive islands, 
abounding, more or less, in all of them. Taking thirty miles in 
breadth along this coast, will give about 50,000,000 of acres of 
public litnd, the most remote jDif which is within thirty miles of 
the navigable waters of the, lakes. A canal might be effected 
from the Atlantic to the lakes, by an appropriation of 1,000,000 
of acres to that object. And this not by an actual sinking or sa- 
crifice of the price of the land, b^it by a conversion of it into ca- 
nal stock ; which stock would, in all probability, be more pro- 
ductive and more valuable than the land itself. And the effect 
of opening this navigation would be to enhance the value of the 
remaining 49,000,000 some hundreds per cent. The value of 
land must depend upon the value of its produce, or, to speak 
with more precision, upon the profits which this produce will 
yield to the agriculturalist. To shew the effect of opening this 
navigation on these profits, I will instance the article of wheat, 
which is one the great staple articles of the lake country, and is 
produced there with great certainty and in greater perfection 
than in any other part of the United States. The average price 
of a bushel of wheat on the lakes, is fifty cents. This depression 
of price is owing solely to the present expense of conveying it to 
market It costs from 75 to 100 cents to transport a bushel of 
wheat from the lakes to New York, which is its nearest Ameri- 
can market. If a canal were cut from the Hudson to the lakes, 
there can be no doubt, but it would reduce the expense of trans • 
portation from 75 and 100 as low, at least, as 25 cents ; and the 
effect would be to add the saving in transportation to the price 
ot the article, and wheat would then be worth on the lakes, one 
dollar instead of fift) cents a bushel. But it costs the farmer 
from 30 to 40 cents to produce a bushel of wheat. When, there- 
fore, he sells for 50 cents, his profits are only from 10 to 20 cents. 
Whereas, if he could sell for one dollar, his profits would be 
from 60 to 70 cents. The effect then of opening this navigation 
would be to increase the profits of the farmer from four to six 
hundred per cent, and the value of land ought to rise in the same 
proportion. But suppose it should only double the value of 
lands (and this is an effect cannot be doubted) what would 
be the result as respects the property of the United States t Why 
sir, the 50,000,000 of acres on the lakes, which are now worth 
50,000,000 of dollars, would immediately become worth one 
hundred millions. And thus, besides performing a great and 
imperious duty, which, as a government, we owe to the people 



11 

of the western country, we should by this operation, as mere 
proprietors ot the soil, and in a matter of pecuniary speculatioHj 
advance the public property fifty millions oT dollars. 

But, sir, there are some gentlemen who are friendly to this 
system of internal improvement, but who think the present time 
inauspicous to such an undertaking, on account of the reduced 
state of the treasury. 

To this objection, I would answer, first, that the means by 
which it is proposed to ^ arry on these improvements, are such 
as are not calculated to make any sensible impression on the re- 
venue : And, necondbj, that the bare increase of the sales of land, 
v«^hich would be effected in consequence of undertaking these 
works, would more than supply the drains on the treasury in 
constructing them. I do not know that I can demonstrate the 
truth of this last position to the satisfaction of the House ; but 
there is not the shade of a doubt on my mind, but the mere un- 
dertaking of a great canal from the Atlantic to the lakes, under 
the auspices of the general government, would, in a very short 
time, cause the sale of more landj than would be sufficient to 
accomplish the whole of the improvements, contemplated in the 
bill before the Senate. 

The expense of executing the whole of the works enumerated 
in that bill, is estimated at sixteen millions of dollars. This is 
not a mere random estimate of my own. It has been formed 
from the best information which the secretary of the treasury 
has been able to collect on this subject, by a gentleman, ( vir* La- 
trobe,) who, as an experienced, and scientific engineer, is con- 
fessedly superior to any other in this country. Tae estimate 
was intended to be a liberal one, and to shew the maximum price 
which the works could cost. If the United States were to 
be interested one half these works, their subscription would 
amount to eight millions of dollars. The proposed plan, how- 
ever, does not contemplate the payment of the principal sum out 
of, nor to make it chargeable upon, our ordinary revenue : But 
it provides that when monies shall be wanted to carry on these 
internal improvements, certificates shall be issued from the trea- 
sury, bearing an interest of six/;^r centum,, redeemable eventu- 
ally out of the proceeds of a particular tract of land set apart 
to be sold for that purpose. These certificates may be sold in 
market, or they may be immediately applied to the purposes for 
which they shall be issued. 

Suppose then that the whole of these works were to be under- 
taken immediately, and completed within ten years ; and sup- 
pose too that no monies should be received from the sales of the 
hypothecated lands* The calls on the treasury would then be, 



12 

Dollars. 

For the first year, . . • . 48,000 

2nd. • . ... 96,000 

3rd 144,000 

5th 240,000 

10th 480.000 

which sum of 480,000 dollars is the interest of the whole princi- 
pal sum of eight millions. And this, sir, would not be a very 
large sum, compared to the magnitude of the object, and to the 
extent of our revenue ; especially when it is considered that, af- 
ter one year from this time, and before the effect of such an ap- 
propriation could be felt, our revenue will be relieved from 
the payment of two millions of dollars, and after two years, from 
the payment of four millions ©f dollars annually, in consequence 
of the reductions which will then have taken place in the princi- 
pal of the national debt 

But it is to be pi'esumed that not more than one third of these 
works would be undertaken immediately, and that these will 
be completed before any others are begun. The works, as fast 
as they shall be completed, will be drawing a toll equal at least, 
it is presumed, to the interest of the money they cost ; and in 
this way the treasury will be relieved from the payment of that 
interest. Upon this calculation, the United States would never 
have to pay, in any one year, a greater sum than the interest oi' 
one third of the principal sum of eight millions of dollars ; and 
in this case, the calls on the treasury would be (supposing again 
that no aids were derived from the sale of lands) as follow : 

Dollars. 
For the 1 St year, ♦ . . 16,000 

2d. ... . 32,000 

3d. . . . • 48,000 

5th. .... 80,000 

10th. . . . . 160,000 

the highest sum called for in any one year. 

Let us now see what will be the probable amount of the sales of 
land, within a given period, to forward the execution of these 
improvements. 

The present population of the United States is estimated at 
seven and an half millions. It is well ascertained that our po- 
pulation doubles once in twenty three years ; and it certainly is 
increasing, at this time, in as high a ratio, as any former period. 
According to a calculation of Mr. Elodget, (in his statistical 
tables) something more than one third of the increasing popula- 
tion of the United States is constantly migrating to the western 
country. One third of the increased population, (or that portion 
>Vhich will migrate ") for the next twenty three years will amount 
to two and an half millions. But suppose that only two millions 



13 

should emigrate, and that only one milHon of these should set- 
tle on the public lands. This population would require 50 miU 
lions of acres, or fifty acres to each person, which is about the 
average quantity taken by new settlers : and it would bring into 
the treasury, in the space of twenty three years, the enormous 
sum of one hundred millions of dollars, upon the supposition that 
the whole of the land should be purchased at the minimum price 
of two dollars an acre. It is probable, however, that it will sell 
much higher ; and, if so, the aggregate amount of the sum will 
be increased in proportion to the increase of the price. 

Such a demand for new lands may appear extravagant to those 
who have not attended to the progressive population and settle- 
ment of the United Slates for the last twenty years. A moment's 
recurrence to a few well known facts on this subject, will shew 
that such a demand is not only probable, but that, unless some 
great national calamity befall us, it is certain. The population 
of the state of New York has considerably more than doubled, 
within the last twenty years. Upwards of fifteen millions of 
acres in the western part of that state, which twenty years ago 
formed a dreary and uninhabited wilderness, are now covered by 
settlements, and compose one of the most flourishing parts of 
the United States. Population and settlement have progressed 
nearly or quite, to the same extent in the northern and western 
parts of the state of Pennsylvania. That tract of country which 
now forms the state of Ohio, did not contain twenty years ago^ 
one thousand inhabitants j and now it has a population of more 
than two hundred thousand,. 1 he great states of Kentucky and 
Tennessee have been almost wholly peopled within the same 
period ; and it is not extravagant to say, that more than one 
hundred millions of acres have been actually purchased and oc- 
cupied within the last twenty years in the western countr}^ 

It is true, sir, that the rate at which the public lands are now, 
and have been for some time past selling, is not such as to war- 
rant the calculation I have made as to future sales ; but the 
causes of these sales being so contracted are obvious. One 
principal cause, which however, will immediately cease to ope- 
rate, because it is ceasing to be a fact, has been that the public 
lands were remote from the inhabited parts of the country. Set- 
tlements will always be regular and progressive. People accus- 
tomed to the pleasures and advantages of society, do not choose 
to remove far into the wilderness, when they can purchase lands 
in the vicinity of old settlements. Several of the individual 
states have held large tracts of wild land, which, being more 
contiguous to settlements, came of course first into market. 
But the lands of the individual states, especially to the north- 
ward, are now nearly all occupied. The state of New York, 
for instance, has but few new lands. Settlement in that state 



14 

has advanced to its western extremity. The same is the case 
with Pennsylvania — and the whole of the immense emigration 
from the northern and middle states, will be immediately pres- 
sing upon the public lands. Another reason for the paucity of 
sales is, that we have no lands in market calculated for this 
northern emigration. The lands on the lakes are shut up. We 
have no lands lor sale further north, than the south part of the 
state of Ohio, and that is too low a latitude for most of the 
northern population. 

Another impediment to the sales of public lands arises from 
the circumstance that you will receive nothing but specie in pay- 
ment for them. The people who migrate to new countries are, 
with few exceptions, of the poorer class. They rarely have 
more than property sufficient to transport their families to their 
new places of residence j to construct a few temporary accom- 
modations, and to subsist themselves and families until their 
farms become productive. They then calculate to pay for their 
farms by the produce of them. But the products of the public 
lands in their present occluded situation, will not command 
money, and settlers are therefore deterred from purchasing. If, 
instead of confining the payments to money, you were to un- 
dertake this system of internal improvement, and issue paper 
to enable you to execute it, and make this paper receivable at 
the land offices, the additional facilities which this would afford 
to payments would not only bring back this paper into the trea- 
sury, but large sums of money with it. To shew the effect of 
such a policy, I need only refer to a comparative 'view of the 
sales of public lands during the time when the evidences of the 
public debt were receivable in payment for lands, and the sales 
which have taken place since that period. 

The salaries in the year 1803, amounted to 199,080 acres. 

1804, ditto 373,611 do. 

1805, ditto 619,236 do. 
During the whole of this time the public paper was receivable 

in payment. The amount of sales was increasing near one hun- 
dred per cent, yearly, and would probably have continued to in- 
crease in the same ratio to this time, had the same quantity of 
public debt been kept afloat, and had it continued to be received 
at the land offices. But, sir, in April, 1 806, a law was passed 
prohibiting the further receipt of the public debt in payment for 
land : And the consequence was that the sales diminished, 
In 1806 to 473,217 acres. 

1807 to 284,180 

1808 to 195,579 

1809 to 143,409 

The sales thus retrograding in amount, in about the same ra- 
tio in which they had before advanced, and this for no other as- 
signable cause than what that law furnishes. 



m 



15 

But, sir, the grand, and all important operation by which only 
you can make extensive and eflectual sales of the public lands, is 
to open the produce of them to market, and in this way to make 
them pay for themselves. Do this, and not only settlers, but 
monied men will become purchasers. There are now thousands, 
and I may venture to say millions of dollars in the northern 
states, ready to be invested in the lands on the lakes, the moment 
a value shall be stamped on them, by the certainty that they 
will be speedily opened to the navigation of the Atlantic. Let 
the United States and the state of New York, undertake a canal 
from the Hudson to the lakes ; and, so far from draining your 
treasury by the operation, it will give you in five years, I pledge 
my reputation on it, an overflowing treasury. There can be no 
mistake about this business, sir, it is a matter of plain calcu- 
lation. 

The government of the state of New York have long seen the 
advantages of such a navigation ; and they have been for several 
years desirous of undertaking this canal. They wait only ia 
the expectation that the general government will aid them in 
this great work ; and this is certainly a just and reasonable ex- 
pectation, inasmuch as the work would benefit the property o£ 
the United States to a much greater extent than that of the state 
of New York. 

The present time, far, in my opinion, from being unpropitious 
to the undertaking of this measure of internal improvement, U 
peculiarly fortunate. The great commercial capitals which have 
been thrown out of employment by the stagnation of foreign 
commerce, are now idle, and might be engaged in these im- 
provements by a little attention on the part of government : and 
if they could be so engaged, they would continue to give sup- 
port to a vast number of our sailors and other laborers, who have 
hitherto been employed in the subordinate occupations of com- 
merce, but who have also been thrown out of employment by 
the stagnation of that commerce. 

If I had not already drawn too largely upon the time of the 
House, I could point out other advantages resulting from this 
system of improvement, not less important than those I have 
mentioned. I could shew that it would bring into the 
treasury, perhaps some millions of dollars yearly, by the increase 
of duties on imports. The great additional quantities of produce 
which would be thrown into market through these roads and 
canals, would be exchanged for foreign merchandise, which is 
subject to heavy duties, and from which most of our present reve- 
nues are derived. I could shew also the great advantages which, 
in a military point of view, would result from these improve- 
ments. If the United States were to be engaged in a war, we 
are equally vulnerable, and equally liable to be assailed, at half 



16 

a dozen different points, some hundreds and even thousands of 
miles distant from each other ; and it would be impossible to 
carr)^ on any vigorous military operations, without the aid of 
good roads and canals to transport over such distances the im- 
mense quantities of arms, ammunition and provisions necessary 
to the supply of a great army. It is sufficient, however, that I 
suggest these arguments, and they will be properly appreciated 
by the House. 

But, Mr. Speaker, there is one other point of view, in which, 
although an unpleasant one, I feel it my duty to present this sub- 
ject to the House ; and this regards not only the means of im- 
proving that great source of national wealth, the public lands, 
to the best advantage ; but it involves the practicability of en- 
joying it at all. The people, who have purchased and settled 
on your new lands, are already your debtors to the amouni of 
some millions of dollars : and in as far as they are your debtors, 
they are (to use a phrase perhaps somewhat too harsh) a species of 
enemy ; and we have already seen to what a formidable extent 
their power and numbers are increasing. It is far from my inten- 
tion, sir, to cast any injurious imputions on the character of these 
settlers. On the contrary, I know that they are not to be distin- 
guished from the great mass of the yeomany of this country ; a- 
mong whom is to be found most of the real patriotism, as well as 
the real strength of the nation. It is on them that we are to depend 
for the security and permanence of our republican institutions. 
It is to them that this government must resort for protection and 
support, in every great and dangerous crisis. I say, sir, that I 
am not about to impeach either the honesty or the patriotism of 
these settlers ; it is their interest and their wish to pay their 
debts, and to discharge all their duties to government as good 
and faithful citizens. But let me ask you, sir, let me ask any 
man of common observation, who has attended in the least, to 
the situation of the western country, how it is possible for these 
settlers to pay you fifty or an hundred millions of dollars in spe- 
cie, when they have no other resources than in their agriculture, 
^nd when the produce of this agriculture will not bring them mo- 
ney enough to buy their whiskey. It is impossible, sir, and if 
vou intend to hold those lands, much more if you intend to make 
them a source of public revenue, you must furnish the means of 
making them productive, by opening them to market. Every 
motive of interest and policv unites in urging the government to 
undertake this system of internal improvement. It is a subject 
too vast to be accomplished by individual enterprise. The 
means of the citizens of the western country are peculiarly in- 
adequate to such an undertaking. They cannot construct canals 
for the very obvious reason that they are already deeply in debt 
for their lands, and ihey must continue so until this great work 



It 

i^ executed for thehi. They will then not only be able to 
pay you for their lands, but they will remunerate you for the 
expense of opening canals by the tolls which they will be able to 
pay. In the advantages which these out-lets for their produce 
will give them, and on which their prosperity must so essentially 
depend, you will have a pledge for their future attachment and 
fidelity to your government, which they will never forfeit. 
But, sir, if you neglect to avail yourselves of the opportunity 
which this system affords, of securing the affections of the wes- 
tern people i if you refuse to extend to them those benefits which 
their situation so imperiously demands, and which your resour- 
ces enable you, and your duty enjoins it on you to extend to 
them. If, while you are expendiTig millions yearly for the en- 
couragement of commerce^ you affect constitutional doubts as to 
your right to expend any thing for the advancement of agricul- 
ture! If you can constitutionally create banks for the accommo- 
dation of the merchant, but cannot construct canals for the be- 
nefit of the farmer I If this be the crooked, partial, side -way po- 
licy which is to be pursued, there is great reason to fear that our 
western brethren may soon accost us in atone higher than that 
of the constitution itself. They may remind us (as the people 
of this country once did another power, equally regardless of 
their interests) of the rights with which the God of nature has 
invested them, by placing them in the possession of a country 
which they have the physical power to defend ; and which it is 
to be feared they would defend against all the tax-gatherers we 
could send among them, supported by all the force of the Atlan- 
tic states. 

It is unpleasant, sir, to be obliged to press considerations of 
this sort, on the attention of the House. Disagreeable, however* 
as they are, they are not on that account the less important, and 
ought not to be disregarded. If you would attach the affections 
of the western people to your government, you must attach them 
by their interests. You must appear among them, not in the 
light of their creditors merely, but as their guardians, their pro- 
tectors, as the promoters of their welfare. If you avoid all com- 
munication with them except what arises out of your relations as 
creditors, and go among them only to collect their money, be 
assured that this is an intercourse which they will soon break off. 
You have seen how effectual an opposition, a few settlers in the 
north part of Pennsylvania have been able to make to the autho- 
rity of that great state : and you have seen in a more recent in- 
stance, the difficulties which a handful of squatters have opposed 
to the power of another great state, the state of Massachusetts — 
and from these examples you may well calculate the effect of an 
opposition from the host of settlers who are covering your new 



— »_» 



18 

I am under great obligation to the House, for the attention 
which I have received during this long discussion ; and I wijlnot 
trespass any further. In the various aspects in which I have 
presented this system of internal improvement, I haye consider- 
ed it, principally, in reference to the effects which it is calculated 
to produce on the western country, because in that point of yiew, 
I consider it not only most important, but least understood. 
I have not gone into a particular examination of the benefits to 
be derived from the proposed canals and roads along the Atlan- 
tic, not because I do not think them important, but because this 
part of the subject is as well, and perhaps better, understood 
by the members generally than by myself. For the same reason, 
I have net gone into any minute calculations to shew the supe- 
rior cheapness and safety of canal transportation, over transpor- 
tation by land. That point is fully illustrated in the report of the 
secretary of the treasury to which I haye before alluded. I be- 
lieve however I hav^ said enough, and more than enough, to sa- 
tisfy the House of the importance of the subject, and of the pro- 
priety of referring it to a committee. This great system, so ne- 
cessary, in my opinion, to the welfare of this country, is not a 
measure of speculative or doubtful utility. Its advantages are 
great and palpable ; and the accomplishment of it perfectly with- 
in the reach of the resources of the nation. I have not been in- 
duced to bring forward this resolution by any personal consider- 
ations ; but I have done it in obedience to a great duty which I 
owe to my constituents. So far from being a project confined to 
myself, or even to a few individuals ; the proposition, which I 
now submit, carries with it the anxious wishes, and the best 
hopes of a large and respectable portion of the population of this 
countr}' — and permit me to hope, sir, that their expectation^ 
inay not be disappointedo 



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